


Spacedog Omegaverse One Shots & Drabbles (Welcome to California series)

by TigerPrawn



Series: California & Beyond [5]
Category: Adam (2009), Charlie Countryman (2013), Hannibal Extended Universe - Fandom
Genre: Alpha Nigel, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Anniversary, Destiny, Established Relationship, Fairy Tale Retellings, Gentling, Happy Ending, Laundry day, M/M, Nigel is angry with Adam, Omega Adam, Power Cut, Spacedogs, Spacedogs Appreciation Week, Spacedogs drabbles, True Mates, adding tags as I go, best alpha ever, plato - Freeform, welcome to California
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-20
Packaged: 2018-05-20 14:27:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6011152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerPrawn/pseuds/TigerPrawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few short one shots & drabbles for Spacedogs Appreciation Week - set within my Welcome to California and Beyond series.</p><p>1. Nigel finds himself upset and angry with Adam. 2. Adam freaks out over a power cut on laundry day. 3. Adam tells Nigel a fairy tale from his childhood about true mates</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. House Guest?

About a month after their trip to New York, Beth emailed Adam. Adam had been glad to receive the email. When he had first moved to California they had stayed in touch, a couple of emails at first - Beth trying to explain further why she didn’t come with him. Adam replying that it was fine, that he sort of understood and she was right not to go. Then there had been the occasional email updates about each other’s lives. He had never told her about he and Nigel as it never seemed appropriate, but he had tried to make sure she understood that he was happy and he had friends and enjoyed his job. He didn’t want her to feel bad about what happened between them, especially as he would have never been brave enough to start over in California if they had never met. He might never have met Nigel, so he couldn’t be upset about what had happened between them. 

This email was very exciting, Beth asked for the postal address as her book was going to be published soon and she wanted to send them a copy. Adam was glad that she was doing so well, even if talking racoons still seemed a bit odd to him. Some people must think it is ok for her to get the book deal. 

She also mentioned that she would be doing a book tour, including a couple of places in California, and so suggested she come and visit so they could catch up properly. Adam found himself happy with the idea. He hadn’t been doing so good last time he saw her, when he and Nigel had visited New York, so it would be nice to have a chance to really catch up. He still liked her, even if only as a friend, he was still interested in what she was up to and would love for her to see how happy he was with Nigel - to thank her for her hand in the way his life had turned out.

He emailed back quickly, his tongue poking from the side of his mouth as he tried to hit the right keys whilst typing at such speed. He gave his address and told her she had to let him know as soon as possible so he could take a few days off work and she could stay with him and Nigel if she liked. He hit send and went about his day. 

*

Nigel flopped into bed. He had been to the gym to train straight after work and had barely managed to stand up in the shower before falling into bed beside Adam. His little omega was still awake and reading something about space - which he immediately abandoned in favour of crawling on top of Nigel’s still slightly damp form. Adam nuzzled into his neck with a purr as Nigel caged him in his arms, happy to fall asleep just like this.

“How was your day gorgeous?” Nigel murmured into Adam’s soft curls. He had missed Adam today, he always did when he didn’t get the chance to see him at work and then he was out all evening. He smiled at the thought of not being able to go 12 fucking hours without seeing his beautiful angel and missing him. 

Adam started on about work, interesting tours, lunch with Lynnette. Nigel was starting to be lulled to a gentle sleep, as much as he tried to resist it, whilst Adam catalogued his day in his Adam way.

“...so I emailed to tell her she should come stay with us. Then…”

“Wait, what?” Nigel was suddenly very awake. Adam had been saying something about an email from Beth, about her book and a tour. She was coming to stay?

“Beth, I emailed to say if she wants to visit she should come stay with us.” Adam started off with a smile, but by the time the words were out, Nigel could see his face had fallen in response to his own. 

“Adam…” Nigel huffed out his name and shifted to sit up, spilling the omega off his lap and onto the bed beside him. “That’s not… We should have talked about this before you invited Beth over.” He tried to keep his tone level but knew Adam would be able to feel his anger through their bond. Adam’s small whimper confirmed this. 

Nigel propped himself against the headboard and rubbed his hands roughly over his face. 

“Fuck! Adam, don’t get upset.” He looked over to see Adam’s gaze flitting around the room to avoid his eyes. Something he didn’t do a lot of since they bonded, at least not with Nigel. Against his instincts to comfort, and against how he wanted to be with Adam, Nigel found his anger not cooling. He was angry with Adam. This wasn’t like when sometimes Adam annoyed him when he was tired or something - just small stuff like being in the bathroom when he really needed to get in there. The usual sort of domestic annoyances that Adam no doubt also felt towards him. They more than made up for it when the moment had passed, with kisses and smiles. But this time, he found he really was actually fucking angry. 

He had done enough in their relationship that was worse than this, he knew that. Maybe it was because he was tired and ached. Maybe it was because he expected more from Adam than he did from himself. But this almost felt as bad as anything he had ever done, even though he knew that wasn’t the case at all, if he were rational. And he wasn’t fucking feeling rational. 

He took hold of Adam’s shoulders and pulled him back onto his lap, holding him there until the omega looked at him finally. 

“Adam, that was not ok.”

He could feel Adam’s confusion. “But Beth is nice, you’ll like her. It would just be a couple of days.” His voice trembled.

Nigel felt torn between wanting to comfort Adam and just say it was ok, and letting his anger continue to boil. He took a deep breath and fought his way to the middle ground. 

“Adam, I’m sure Beth is lovely and we’ll be friends, but you should have asked me. We should have talked about this first. I live here too, this is our home… we should have talked about it.”

Adam nodded, his eyes cast down as he bit on his lower lip. “I understand. I didn’t mean to… This is our home together and I should have talked to you. I didn’t think about it… I’m sorry. I’m sorry I made you feel like you don’t have a choice in it, um, I’m sorry I didn’t think about how you would feel because it’s your home too.” Adam brought his eyes back up to Nigel’s. “It is your home Nigel, I’m sorry if I made you feel like it wasn’t. It wouldn’t be home at all without you here.” Adam’s lips trembled slightly.

Nigel’s anger bled out of him totally as he pulled his omega tight to his chest - instead feeling pride at how well Adam was holding together given the situation. He was glad of it, he didn’t want to deal with Adam freaking out when he felt like this, he didn’t know how he would handle it. But instead is anger broke and he just wanted to comfort and make up, especially now Adam was nuzzling into his neck, desperate be comforted by his scent. 

Nigel ran his hands up and down Adam’s back. 

“It’s ok baby, we can talk about it in the morning.” He told Adam, already knowing Beth would be coming to stay.


	2. Power cut on laundry day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam has a freak out over a power outage on laundry day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had hoped to do a drabble a day for space dogs appreciation week, but I had loss of complications after having my baby and so have struggled to finish the ones I started. As such there will be this one and one more which will go up tomorrow. Hope you enjoy them! :-)

“N...Nigel…” Adam's voice was little more than a whisper. “Nnnn…Nigel” the whisper was tinged with anxiety.

Nigel started to rouse slowly, the pawing of his omega becoming a gentle pummelling until he woke up. 

“What is it gorgeous?” He was instantly aware that Adam was anxious and becoming overwhelmed. He didn't wait for an answer before sitting up and gathering the smaller man up into his arms, pressing him tight to his chest as a calming technique. Nigel hadn't had to use them often, but he had become very astute at picking up on Adam’s anxieties and how to sooth them, ever since they bonded. 

He felt Adam take a deep breath against him and then burrow his face into the calming scent of his alpha’s neck. Nigel waited a few minutes like this, knowing Adam would let him know eventually what the problem was, one he'd calmed down enough. Until then they sat in the dark holding each other. 

Nigel could feel Adam calming as he ran a gentling hand in circles at the base of Adam's back. Although he could feel Adam was reassured, there was still anxiety there.

“What is it baby?” Nigel asked gently

“The power is off.” Adam replied, his voice a little shaky.

“It'll come back darling.” Nigel soothed, a little unsure what to say. Adam had been doing so well lately this seemed an odd thing to get so worked up about. “I’ll take a look on my phone and see if it's a reported fault…”

Adam moved back and looked at him. “I already did that. The power company website says engineers are working on it and it should be back within twelve hours. That will be by midday.” 

Nigel ran his hands up and down Adam’s tense arms. “Well… that's good…”

Adam's face creased a little and he shook his head. “I do laundry on Sunday mornings. I won't be able to do the laundry… We need work clothes for Monday…” 

Nigel frowned, hating to see how fucking anxious his little omega was. He'd been so good lately and yet it was changes to his routine that caused him the most distress. Changes that resulted from Nigel being in his life he seemed to cope well with, but beyond that he seemed to compensate by losing his shit over what Nigel often considered to be insignificant details.

Nigel knew better than to suggest a laundromat, he'd tried once before when their machine needed fixing and that had not gone well. Who knew a place for cleaning clothes could be so fucking dirty. To say Adam wasn't a fan was a fucking understatement. Just thinking about it had Nigel concerned, despite an underlying sense that it could be worse.

Nigel pulled Adam tight to him and ran a hand through his dark curls. 

“I'll do the laundry, gorgeous. Don't you worry about it…” Nigel offered before kissing Adam’s hair. 

He felt Adam stiffen in his arms. “Not the laundromat.” Adam shuddered. 

“No darling, not the laundromat.” Nigel chuckled and felt Adam relax a little into him and resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief - glad the omega was calming. 

“How?” Adam asked quietly.

Nigel pulled back to look at Adam, brushing an errant curl from his forehead. “With my hands darling.” Nigel grinned and held his large hands up to Adam, who hesitated a moment before moving one of his palms into Nigel’s with a smile.

Nigel got out of the bed knowing that Adam was following close behind him like a shadow. “I've lived in lots of terrible places and this was the only way to make sure I still had clean and smart clothes for business…” Nigel picked up the laundry hamper from the corner of the room and started to the bathroom via the kitchen to pick up the laundry detergent and candles. Adam still trailing behind as he lit candles along the way.

*

Adam took a seat on the toilet, watching as Nigel filled the bath with water, suds and clothes. 

Despite still feeling on edge he was curious as to how Nigel was going to solve this problem. As he watched his lover roughly pummel the clothes in the water, he found a calm descending. He wasn't sure they would be as clean add a machine wash but he trusted Nigel to get them as clean as possible, which might be ok just this once. 

Nigel was wearing only his pajama bottoms, his upper body becoming damp here and there as water splashed over the edge of the bath. The muscles in his arms and chest were taut as he worked the suds through the clothes. A few suds had splashed up and clung to his beard, making Adam smile.

Adam pulled his legs up and rested his head on his knees as he watched. His distress bleeding out of him as he felt a whole other level of taken care of by his alpha. Protected and safe and warm and cared for.

Adam didn't realise until Nigel looked over with a grin that he had purred out a breathy “alpha” whilst watching.

Nigel continued to grin as he flicked a small splash of water over to Adam. Adam wasn't quite ready to manage that level of playfulness, but he did return the smile and then moved over to Nigel, snuggling into his side as the alpha continued to wash their laundry by candle light.


	3. True Mate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam and Nigel celebrate their one year anniversary and Adam recalls a fairy tale from his childhood.

It’s rare that Adam is still asleep when Nigel wakes up. Usually Adam serves as Nigel’s human alarm clock - nuzzling into him, climbing over him, squirming around until he can’t wait any longer for his alpha to wake up. But there are the few occassions like this, that even after a year together, Nigel finds melts his heart. 

They’d had a late night - dinner out with Lynnette and Angela to celebrate the anniversary of when they got together. Adam had insisted this be from their first date. Nigel had initially wanted it to be from when they had bonded, but Adam’s heat - much like the man himself - was pretty much cycled to a firm routine and so their anniversary would have fallen during his heat, not really allowing them to celebrate it in the same way. Nigel had conceded but with the proviso that they would also celebrate their bonding privately. He’d whispered the sort of ways in which they might do that which had made Adam blush and giggle before kissing him passionately... for starters. 

Nigel was mesmerised by his little omega, he’d only seen him like this in the morning light a few times, and every time it took his breath away. The dark curls falling over closed eyes, porcelain skin looking like it would turn to milk and flow away as soon as he touched it. The curve of his body as he lay not quite face down in the over stuffed pillow, with the bed sheets gathered low on his naked hips. 

The alpha was torn between the desire to gather his little spaceman up into his arms, and the just as strong desire to leave him undisturbed as long as possible, as though touching him would be some kind of corruption. His little angel.

He wasn’t sure how much longer he lay there watching Adam, his hand moving an inch above the omega’s body - tracing the lines of his curves but never making contact - a compromise. He pulled his hand back as Adam took in a deep breath, puffing it out and into the curls on his face, that fluttered gently. His tongue came out to run over dry lips as his eyes started to blink open. As he raised his head from the pillow he looked over at Nigel who smiled at him from his propped elbow.

Adam returned the smile eagerly before his lips twisted into a yawn and he stretched out on the bed, rolling as he stretched so that he now lay on his back. 

“Alpha…” he muttered sleepily and lifted his arms to invite Nigel into an embrace. 

Just the word on his lips made Nigel feel primal, but he held it back, still lost in the reverence he felt for Adam. Instead he moved over the omega, letting the arms cage him in as he laced gentle kisses along Adam’s jaw. 

“You are so fucking beautiful.” Nigel muttered against the soft skin. 

Adam giggled and Nigel felt the skin heat under him as a blush grew. It always amused him what could make Adam blush, despite how sexually adventurous the omega could be. He knew it was because of the bond - Adam could feel the depth of his feelings when he said things like this and it made him a little overwhelmed, but the bond equally turned that into an understanding of the intended flattery and leveled out the feeling into a blush. A blush just for Nigel. 

Nigel’s lips moved to the bite scar on Adam’s neck, nuzzling into it and taking in the earthy omega scent from the glands there. Intoxicating, even when Adam wasn’t in heat, it was like a drug to Nigel. He would never get enough of that. Even with the few patchy memories he had of his past, he knew he had never been drawn to someone else’s scent like this. He knew because he would never have been able to give it up, he’d have never been able to forget it. He knew that if his head injury happened now and he forgot everything, he would still remember Adam. And he would find him and continue to love him. 

“Are you ok Nigel?” Adam asked, his voice still sleepy. 

Nigel looked down into his wide blue eyes, realising that he had moved back up onto his elbows and drifted off into his own thoughts. 

“Do you need more sleep? You’re not normally up before me, I like waking you up.” Adam’s grin was somewhere between sleepy and teasing, resulting in a low growl rising from Nigel’s throat, which made Adam laugh. Nigel knew through their bond quite how much Adam enjoyed the reactions he brought out in his alpha - amusement, lust, love. 

“I was just thinking about you gorgeous.” Nigel told him. Adam’s look was confused for a moment.

“But you don’t need to, I’m right here.” 

“I was thinking how beautiful you are.” Nigel told him, moving his hand up into Adam’s curls and smoothing them back from his face. “I was thinking how I would never be able to forget you for a single moment no matter what happens to me.”

Adam’s look was searching, but he seemed to understand. He bit on his lower lip as he looked at Nigel and the alpha could feel he was a little overwhelmed. A moment later that broke and Adam’s face turned to a smile. He brought his hands up into Nigel’s hair and pushed it back behind his ears from where it had fallen forward. 

“When I was little I had a book my mum used to read me.” Adam spoke a little hesitantly. “I don’t think my dad knew about it, until she died and then he got rid of it. It was a fairy tale story about an alpha and an omega. Mum and dad didn’t really understand me because they were both betas and I think this was how my mum tried to deal with it…” his voice trailed off and Nigel knew he was thinking about how his dad had coped when his mum had died - deciding to shelter Adam from contract with alphas. He had meant to protect his son but instead had held him back from understanding what he might have with an alpha. Adam had never realised what he might have have, at least until Nigel came along. 

Nigel stroked his hand through Adam’s hair again, comforting him and encouraging him to continue. Looking down into blue eyes that darted about and only momentarily met his gaze now and then as he recalled the memories.

“In the book the alpha and omega were really lonely and they went through their days sad and not knowing why. Then the alpha read about Plato and how he believed that originally alphas and omegas started out joined together but then got split in two and had to spend their lives looking for their other half in order to be whole again - their true mate. So then the alpha knew why he was sad and needed to find his true mate to be whole. And he searched all over the world and met lots of different people, but none of them were the right one. Until he found the omega, and when they met they both knew they were the other halves of each other and so they bonded and lived happily ever after. Mum used to tell me that, as far as she understood, that was what it was like for alphas and omegas - there is only one other half out there and they have to find it, even if they have to travel all over the world to do it.” He looked up at Nigel with smiling eyes “Like you did. You came here and found me.” 

Nigel hadn’t moved, still staring down at Adam’s radiant face, his throat constricted with emotion. He felt a sting in his eyes. Adam looked confused for a moment, before realising the burgeoning tears were not of sadness. He pulled Nigel back to him, Nigel’s face buried in Adam’s neck.

Nigel remembered their first date, finally getting to spend time with Adam and his thoughts telling him true mate. He wasn’t even sure he believed in those fairy tales and yet Adam had brought the thought instantly to mind. 

“I don’t think I knew straight away.” Adam was speaking softly, running his hand gently down Nigel’s back add though trying to gentle him. “Not at the airport, but when I had your shirts in my room, I knew your scent was just for me. It made me feel safe and protected. Even though you scared me.” 

Nigel’s huff at that was muffled against Adam’s skin. 

“So even though then I knew, or I thought about it. I remembered the story and thought you might be my alpha, which made me even more scared because dad had said alphas were bad and I was scared I wouldn’t be able to escape from you if you even if you were bad because you are my true mate.”

Nigel knew his face was wet and the tears were falling onto Adam’s skin. It broke his heart to think how scared Adam had been of him at first. He wasn’t sure if he felt reassured to know that part of that fear was down to how much his dad had fucked him up with his views on alphas. He found his heart swelling and breaking to know that Adam’s mum had tried her best to understand Adam’s being an omega and how she could help him understand it too. Nigel wondered how life would have been different for Adam had she not died when he was a child. 

Nigel knew Adam felt the tears because his breath hitched a little and there was a tug through the bond of slight panic - a moment of not understanding and not knowing how to deal with it, until the equilibrium righted itself. 

“I didn’t want to upset you Nigel.” Adam said, both his hands now back up in Nigel’s hair, smoothing it down. “I… um… I just wanted to say that I think it means our anniversary date is wrong. Shouldn’t it be from the day you came to my hotel room?…”

Nigel felt like his heart had burst right out of his chest and he laughed. He pulled himself back up onto his elbows, his face red and wet with tears, which he now laughed through. Adam’s beautiful story and all to try and correct what he considered might be a miscalculation. There was nothing about this moment that wasn’t pure Adam, and Nigel loved him for it. 

“It can be any day you fucking want darling.” Nigel told him as Adam’s small hands came up to wipe the tears from his cheeks. “The important thing is that we found each other.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reference to Plato - his idea was that people were split in two and had to find their other halves- I've just applied it here specifically to alphas and omegas


End file.
